Svenska Dagbladet published a story (in Swedish) that appears to characterise the likely round of job cuts resulting from Ericsson’s continued drive to achieve profitability as ‘brutal’. It then did some back-of-a-fag-packet calculations to conclude that up to 25,000 Ericsson employees are likely to be affected by the drive, which doesn’t necessarily mean redundancy.

Ericsson’s response, which was apparently also sent to Svenska Dagbladet, is to point out that it detailed the fresh round of cost cutting a month ago during its Q2 earnings announcement. In response to some of the specifics of the story the Ericsson statement says it’s too early to talk about which business units and countries will be affected. It’s worth noting that this isn’t the same as saying the report is wrong, only that the plans have yet to be finalised.

“Ericsson has previously communicated that a key component in the company’s focused business strategy is to reduce costs and increase efficiency,” said the Ericsson statement. “In connection with the Q2 report 2017, Ericsson communicated that the company, in light of the current market outlook, will accelerate the planned actions to ensure that the target of doubling the 2016 operating margin beyond 2018 can be met.

“Actions will be taken primarily in service delivery and common costs, but do not include R&D. The plan is to implement cost savings with an annual run rate effect of at least SEK 10 b. by mid-2018, of which approximately half will be related to common costs.

“Ericsson has not communicated which specific units or countries that could be affected. It is too early to talk about specific measures or exclude any country. As Ericsson executes on these plans to save costs, the company will communicate this, and to what extent employees could be affected.”

As far as it’s possible to accurately derive from a Google translation of the article, the suggested cuts are likely to be restricted to non-Swedish operations and Ericsson is even having to hire some engineers to compensate for excessive culling, according to an anonymous source. Another source alleges that internal support for CEO Börje Ekholm is diminishing.

Elsewhere Ericsson is looking to raise a few krona by suing French/Chinese smartphone maker Wiko for allegedly infringing a bunch of patents. We’re told this has been going on for years despite negotiations going on since 2013 and now the time has come to escalate things.

“Global sharing of technology and open standards are the force behind the smartphone revolution and have allowed new entrants, such as Wiko, to quickly build successful businesses,” said Gustav Brismark, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson. “This ICT eco-system only works, however, if all market players respect the basic rules of FRAND licensing. It is unfair for Wiko to benefit from our substantial R&D investment without paying a reasonable license fee for our patented technology.”

If Ericsson wins maybe that will save a few jobs.

]]>http://telecoms.com/484120/ericsson-insists-theres-nothing-new-in-brutal-job-cuts-story/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/06/ericsson-hq-09-e1496233048132.jpgEricsson, Nokia and Huawei all get a piece of $650m Mobily network upgrade gighttp://telecoms.com/484067/ericsson-nokia-and-huawei-all-get-a-piece-of-650m-mobily-network-upgrade-gig/
http://telecoms.com/484067/ericsson-nokia-and-huawei-all-get-a-piece-of-650m-mobily-network-upgrade-gig/#commentsTue, 15 Aug 2017 12:25:26 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=484067Saudi Arabian operator Mobily has recruited a dream team of networking vendors to upgrade its mobile network over the next three years.

Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei are all getting a piece of the action, although it has not been disclosed how the three fierce competitors are going to coexist during the project. The total amount Mobily (otherwise known as Etihad Etisalat) expects to shell out for the project is SAR 2.4 billion (~$650 million), for which it doesn’t expect to need fresh debt.

“This agreement comes in line with 2030 Kingdom Vision and its objectives that focus on developing telecom & IT sector,” said Mobily CEO Ahmed Aboudoma, as reported by the Saudi Gazette. “Moreover, it will allow Mobily to provide the best services to its customers that comply with its new strategy ‘RISE’ in which its objectives revolve around boosting up the level of provided services by using the latest telecom technologies.

“Mobily’s current network has a competitive performance among the sector. The new agreement will contribute in raising network performance significantly to allow Mobily customers enjoy unprecedented services. The agreement discussions lasted more than 6 months to ensure adding plans comply with telecom technology rapid developments, in addition to adapting future technologies within an efficient contractual framework.”

This marks an interesting twist in the intense competition for Middle Eastern business between the big kit vendors. Ericsson recently won some digital transformation business from Zain Kuwait that Huawei is said to have been hoping for. Saudi Arabia is the biggest country and economy in the region and it is committed to reducing its economic reliance on oil though the 2030 Vision programme.

]]>http://telecoms.com/484067/ericsson-nokia-and-huawei-all-get-a-piece-of-650m-mobily-network-upgrade-gig/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/08/Mobily-logo.jpgEricsson and Intel among founders of Automotive Edge Computing Consortiumhttp://telecoms.com/483984/ericsson-and-intel-among-founders-of-automotive-edge-computing-consortium/
http://telecoms.com/483984/ericsson-and-intel-among-founders-of-automotive-edge-computing-consortium/#commentsFri, 11 Aug 2017 11:10:44 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483984A bunch of Japanese companies have got together with Ericsson and Intel to create a new collaboration group devoted to improving the connection between cars and the cloud.

The Automotive Edge Computing Consortium also features Toyota, NTT Docomo, and Japanese automotive tech company DENSO. Its stated aim is to ‘develop an ecosystem for connected cars to support emerging services such as intelligent driving, the creation of maps with real-time data and driving assistance based on cloud computing.’

The thinking is that as the connected/smart/autonomous car becomes increasingly commonplace, the amount of data flying backwards and forwards between them and the cloud will increase exponentially. It seems reasonable for companies in every part of the connected car food chain to collaborate on the best way to make this work.

As the name implies there is a focus on edge computing and ensuring that this already significant tech trend takes sufficient account of the needs of connected cars. There is also a nod to good, old Big Data although, as ever, it’s not immediately apparent how all fresh mound of steaming data will be put to profitable use.

That’s it for now. The founding members have vowed to try to grow the group in the coming months, although it would be far from surprising to see rival ones crop up before long.

The project will focus on bringing utilities such as electricity and water into the 21st century via things like enterprise and cloud billing and smart meters. These will supposedly enable more efficient and accurate billing and distribution as well as greater end-user engagement.

Ericsson is the sole technology partner and as such will install around 800,000 smart meters as well as its Multiservice Delivery Platform, which is designed to digitize consumer channels and offer user-friendly services such as self-service portals.

“We have worked closely together with Zain Kuwait from the start of this digital transformation initiative, and we have made a long-term commitment to enable new revenue streams,” said Wojciech Bajda, Head of Customer Unit Zain at Ericsson. “We really look forward to being part of this project and to help develop the smart city infrastructure.”

This seems to be a pretty major project as it’s not expected to be completed by 2014. There’s a distinctly IoT-ish element to it and that tech trend is expected to evolve significantly over the duration of the project so maybe Ericsson will be able to shoe-horn some extra connectivity goodies later on.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483948/ericsson-gets-zain-kuwait-digital-transformation-gig/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/08/Ericsson-Zain-Kuwait.jpgVerizon, Qualcomm and Ericsson almost hit 1 Gbps using commercial LAAhttp://telecoms.com/483905/verizon-qualcomm-and-ericsson-almost-hit-1-gbps-using-commercial-laa/
http://telecoms.com/483905/verizon-qualcomm-and-ericsson-almost-hit-1-gbps-using-commercial-laa/#commentsTue, 08 Aug 2017 15:30:47 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483905The trio, who have been doing quite a bit of work together recently, recorded speeds of 953 Mbps in a joint commercial network deployment in Boca Raton, Florida.

While they did fall just short of the holy grail that is gigabit speeds, 953 Mbps is pretty impressive nonetheless. Many lab tests have brought up similar results, but the trio claim this is the first time such speeds have been reached in a real-world deployment. Perhaps the gigabit economy isn’t as far away as we actually think, and maybe we don’t have to wait for 5G to realise it…

“Today’s milestone is a great example of our approach to new technology – we deploy the latest capabilities reliably and in real-world environments, not just in a lab,” said Nicola Palmer, Chief Wireless Network Officer for Verizon. “By continuing to deploy the latest technologies on our 4G LTE Advanced network, we pave the way for better and faster performance for the things our customers do now, and provide the groundwork for our future advancements.”

Perhaps what makes the test more impressive is the kit which was used. Making use of commercially available Verizon network components including a cell site, hardware, software, and backhaul, it makes the test a bit more realistic. Many tests are demonstrating such speeds, but using kit which would not be feasible in the real world just yet. This looks to be one of the first steps towards economically viable gigabit speeds.

Other bits of kit involved included Ericsson’s micro Radio 2205 for Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), as well as the wider Ericsson Radio System, and also Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 mobile platform test device, featuring a Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.

As you can imagine with such speeds, the test made use of some of the more advanced breakthroughs of recent months as well. The test used a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum, allowing four carrier aggregation, as well as 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM to allow the devices to deliver more data in each transmission.

“It is exciting to see Gigabit LTE momentum globally and in the US, especially as we move closer to a 5G world,” said Mike Finley, SVP & President, Qualcomm North America. “With leading operators and infrastructure vendors like Verizon and Ericsson, we will continue to develop and deploy innovative technologies to power future networks and devices.”

It’s a nice mix of the old and new, placing emphasis on making commercially viable steps forward. Gigabit speeds have been promised over and over again throughout recent months, and while it will happen eventually, you swallow the PR-laden promises with a bit of a grimace. This one, however, has a bit more a real feel about it.

And talking about PR, the speeds certainly come at a good time when you consider the T-Mobile challenge which Verizon is facing. T-Mobile is eating up market share, not only because of disruptive pricing plans and offers, but because their network is performing exceptionally well. The latest report from Opensignal, pinned the winners in the network speed tests in the US as Sprint and T-Mobile, though on a nationwide level, Verizon was still a very strong performer. The news of such speeds will give the Verizon marketing bods a bit of ammunition to fight back with.

Bearing this in mind, you can probably expect to see some very bold claims over the next couple of months, as flagship smartphone launches are likely to be compatible with such breakthroughs. Prepare for such slogans as ‘5G speeds on 4G’ or ‘4G which is as good as 5G’ as the marketing machine gets set to confuse consumers all over again.

It is good news and a very positive step forward, but let’s not overdo it, ey?

]]>http://telecoms.com/483905/verizon-qualcomm-and-ericsson-almost-hit-1-gbps-using-commercial-laa/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/04/thumbs-up.jpgNokia shows Ericsson how it’s donehttp://telecoms.com/483726/nokia-shows-ericsson-how-its-done/
http://telecoms.com/483726/nokia-shows-ericsson-how-its-done/#commentsThu, 27 Jul 2017 14:08:39 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483726Both were giants in the industry, both were eclipsed by Huawei and both are scrambling to reinvent themselves, but only one is showing tenuous signs of recovery.

For the second quarter of 2017, Nokia has reported operating profits of €574 million, up 73% year-on-year, though it has warned the market sales are expected to drop by 3% to 5% over the course of 2017. It’s a real mixed bag for Nokia, which has some very promising business units making some good cash, but the telco network equipment area is proving to be a tough cookie. Group sales decreased 1% to €5.63 billion.

“We expect our primary addressable market with communication service providers to be slightly more challenging in 2017 than earlier forecast,” said CEO Rajeev Suri. “We now expect a decline in the market in the range of 3-5%, versus our earlier view of a low-single digit decline. In addition, we continue to expect our Networks sales to perform in line with the market.

“In summary, a good second quarter, some challenges ahead this year, but also reasons to be optimistic about Nokia’s ability to deliver.”

Despite tough market conditions, Nokia has certainly shown a bit more than its Swedish neighbours. The $16 billion acquisition of Alcatel Lucent has continued to pay dividends as it continues to broaden its product portfolio in fixed line. Less of a streamlined focus on mobile now the 4G phenomenon would appear to have peaked, is making the purchase seem like a bit of a bargain in hindsight. Meaningful contributions from the 5G euphoria are not expected until 2019, so there might be another couple of mixed earnings calls on the horizon.

One boost to the bank account which investors should not become comfortable with is the patent settlement with Apple. This almost certainly assisted with the profit uplift, primarily because such a settlement was unexpected. Apple is not usually reasonable when it comes to disputes, preferring to measure the might of its own legal team in the courts, but this must have been a pleasant surprise for the Nokia team.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483726/nokia-shows-ericsson-how-its-done/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/03/Nokia-MWC-2017.jpgMTS, Ericsson and Qualcomm demo Rel-13 LAAhttp://telecoms.com/483523/mts-ericsson-and-qualcomm-demo-rel-13-laa/
http://telecoms.com/483523/mts-ericsson-and-qualcomm-demo-rel-13-laa/#commentsWed, 19 Jul 2017 11:16:14 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483523MTS has announced what it claims is the first commercial trial of License Assisted Access in Russia, in partnership with Ericsson and Qualcomm.

The trial was also apparently the first time a commercial Ericsson product has been used for Rel-13 LAA (in this case the good old Pico RBS 6402), and it also used a Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE mobile test device. The trial used unspecified licensed spectrum together with the unlicensed 5 GHz band, but the announcement failed to crow about speeds-and-feeds for some reason.

“Delivering the level of mobile connectivity our subscribers expect, across a wide variety of environments, is a primary focus of MTS,” said Andrei Ushatskiy, MTS VP of Technology and IT. “This successful demonstration is the first of its kind in Russia, and shows our commitment to exceeding our customers’ expectations with enhanced experiences.”

“LAA enables more operators globally to offer Gigabit LTE, which is an essential foundation when introducing the 5G mobile experience, and we look forward to working with infrastructure vendors, OEMs, and network operators to advance mobile connectivity for subscribers across the world,” said Yulia Klebanova, VP of Biz Dev for Qualcomm Europe.

The debate around the use of unlicensed spectrum to augment mobile broadband remains unresolved, with plenty of people still concerned about the degradation of other wireless communications, especially wifi. This is likely to be resolve on a country-by-country basis and maybe this trial indicates Russia has a relatively benign LAA environment.

Revenues were down 13% year-on-year, when adjusting for constant currency, and that decline was spread pretty evenly across the world, with EMEA and the Americas all looking especially weak. The Networks business segment accounted for nearly all of that decline, with software sales especially disappointing, although IT & Cloud and Other both declined too. There was no news regarding the anticipated sale of the Media unit.

On the analyst call CEO Börje Ekholm sounded pretty downbeat and apologetic. When the numbers aren’t great CEOs like to focus on what highlights they can find but, other than reiterating his determination to sort things out, there were few available. On top of the weak numbers Ericsson adjusted down its general RAN market outlook to ‘high single digit percentage decline’ from more like -4% the previous quarter. He also lamented that operators seem to be more ken on investing in the fibre backbone than RAN kit these days.

We are not satisfied with our underlying performance with continued declining sales and increasing losses in the quarter,” said Ekholm. Execution of our focused business strategy is gaining traction. However, in light of current market conditions, we are accelerating the planned actions to reduce costs.

“One key component in our focused business strategy is to reduce costs and increase efficiency. In light of the current market outlook, we will accelerate our actions to ensure that we can meet our target of doubling the 2016 operating margin beyond 2018. Actions will be taken primarily in service delivery and common costs and do not include R&D. Our plan is to implement cost savings with an annual run rate effect of at least SEK 10 b. by mid-2018, of which approximately half will be related to common costs.

“In light of current market environment and company performance, we are accelerating actions to reduce costs. Our focused business strategy is designed to take us back to technology and market leadership and improve company performance, also in a tough market. We see initial signs of traction in strategy execution including increased investments in R&D in Networks and ramp up of deliveries of Ericsson Radio System, increasing our competitiveness in the market.”

Analysts were especially keen to get more detail on why Ericsson has downgraded its RAN market outlook but few specifics were forthcoming. They also wanted to know why Ericsson continues to write down the value of existing deals but once more the guidance was vague, effectively amounting to ‘shit happens’.

At time of writing Ericsson’s shares were down around 10% following the Q2 earnings announcement. It seems there is limited sympathy for continued lamentations about weak market conditions and, right now, Ericsson is providing investors with little reason to anticipate a turnaround anytime soon.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483472/ericsson-shares-plunge-10-as-turnaround-remains-elusive/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/06/Ericsson-logo-window.jpgEricsson scores quick win with Chelsea FC wifi partnershiphttp://telecoms.com/483464/ericsson-scores-quick-win-with-chelsea-fc-wifi-partnership/
http://telecoms.com/483464/ericsson-scores-quick-win-with-chelsea-fc-wifi-partnership/#commentsMon, 17 Jul 2017 16:23:25 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483464Ericsson has announced the continuation of its partnership with Chelsea FC, focusing more on an area which it has dubbed ‘Small Cell-as-a-Service’.

Acting as the connectivity partner for Stamford Bridge, Ericsson will design, build and operate the network on the customer’s behalf, providing free wifi via the Small Cell-as-a-Service connected venue business. As a result, fans will be able to update their Facebook page, find a local pub and even keep track of where the nearest post-match scrap will be taking place. Never again will Chelsea fans have to walk home with an out an out-of-date profile pic, sober and bruiseless; winners all around.

“Our research indicates that people want to use their digital devices wherever they go – and the urge to connect is even greater at a Chelsea FC home game,” said Arun Bansal, SVP of Europe & Latin America at Ericsson.

“Through this partnership, we will ensure the connectivity at Stamford Bridge matches the quality of the football and look forward to exploring further options that will enable Chelsea FC to take the digital experience to the next level.”

This is an example of a partnership which we can see becoming more popular over the next few years. With the fortunes on offer through the digital economy, it won’t be too long before entertainment venues will start creating their own networks for punters. In sport it makes a lot of sense as well.

If controlling access to the customer and monetizing said gateway with third party-advertising or location services is a potential business model for operators, the same could be said for football clubs (for example). They already have a host of sponsors and partners, all of whom are looking for better ways to engage customers through the emotional connection between the fan and the football club. By removing the operator from the connectivity equation, the football club control the gateway, and therefore the revenues which can be charged as an entry fee through said gateway.

It sounds simple, but in practise it is complicated to get right. Looking around the digital community, there are only a handful of companies which have nailed the walled garden business model, with Facebook sitting top of the pile. We’re slightly pessimistic as to whether a football club would be able to make such a business model work, but who knows.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483464/ericsson-scores-quick-win-with-chelsea-fc-wifi-partnership/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/chelsea-stadium.jpgEricsson shows off its NB-IoT credentials in Taiwanhttp://telecoms.com/483391/ericsson-shows-off-its-nb-iot-credentials-in-taiwan/
http://telecoms.com/483391/ericsson-shows-off-its-nb-iot-credentials-in-taiwan/#commentsFri, 14 Jul 2017 11:55:00 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483391Ericsson has built IoT trial system for Chunghwa Telecom based on NB-IoT LPWAN technology to let it try out a bunch of IoT devices and applications.

Advanced but geographically compact market like Taiwan are a good place to try out new wireless technologies as they offer greater control of the environment. Chunghwa Telecom is Taiwan’s largest mobile operator and refers to itself as an integrated telecommunications services company. It will use Ericsson IoT RAN software and a network-sliced vEPC, deployed as a dedicated IoT Packet Core, among other techie morsels.

“Ericsson has long been our leading network provider and has demonstrated the strong device life-cycle management and integration capabilities that are required for a system of this type,” said Chen Shyang-Yih,of Chunghwa Telecom. “NB-IoT technology is one of our primary focuses in 2017, and we are keen to explore more opportunities based on the new technology.”

“This agreement represents a real milestone for both companies, and shows that we have made rapid progress since signing a 5G memorandum of understanding during Mobile World Congress 2017,” said Håkan Cervell, President of Ericsson Taiwan. “Together we will identify 5G use cases and applications for the digital transformation of industry verticals such as transportation and utilities.”

In the other side of the East China Sea SK Telecom combined with Ericsson to test Licensed Assisted Access, combining 20 MHz of LTE spectrum with three lots of the same amount of unlicensed wifi bands to achieve a claimed 1 Gbps of data throughput. LAA is an initial step towards the use of higher frequency bands in 5G.

“The technology that we have tested is the starting point for an evolution to 5G, and SK Telecom will continue to develop the infrastructure so that users can experience 5G service as soon as possible,” said Park Jin-hyo, Head of Network R&D at SK Telecom.

“Global mobile data traffic is expected to increase eight times by 2022, with video being increasingly dominant,” said Patrick Johansson, CEO at Ericsson-LG. “Naturally, South Korea is part of this development and Ericsson’s Licensed Assisted Access solution will provide a better user experience for SK Telecom’s customers.”

Earlier this week Ericsson helped Finnish operator DNA to demo ‘Gigabit LTE’ using a similar set of technologies to those used at the recent Wembley Stadium showcase. It also launched a bunch of new IoT services that moved us to verse.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483391/ericsson-shows-off-its-nb-iot-credentials-in-taiwan/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/Ericsson-Korea-image.jpgAn Ode To Ericsson – All the World’s an IoThttp://telecoms.com/483252/an-ode-to-ericsson-all-the-worlds-an-iot/
http://telecoms.com/483252/an-ode-to-ericsson-all-the-worlds-an-iot/#commentsTue, 11 Jul 2017 09:40:37 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483252Ericsson has launched a few new services for the burgeoning world of IoT, so here’s a poem to let you know about them.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483252/an-ode-to-ericsson-all-the-worlds-an-iot/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/Poem-Time-Long.jpgEricsson takes BSS wins where it can get themhttp://telecoms.com/483229/ericsson-takes-bss-wins-where-it-can-get-them/
http://telecoms.com/483229/ericsson-takes-bss-wins-where-it-can-get-them/#commentsMon, 10 Jul 2017 11:30:29 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483229Ericsson has puffed its chest out with a cheeky little BSS win in Vietnam, as VNPT chooses the Swedes to upgrade its online charging system.

The company has been selected to modernize the VNPT charging and business support systems, replacing the legacy infrastructure, in a contract which also includes a backend IT peripheral system. Ericsson claims the new system will allow for easier integration of new products and offers on both the post-paid and pre-paid side of things

“We continuously introduce new and advanced technology in VNPT’s network and the Ericsson Charging System will reduce the overall service management and service delivery costs,” said Denis Brunetti, Head of Ericsson Vietnam and Myanmar. “It will also enable VNPT to increase subscriber satisfaction and to capitalize on new business opportunities.”

“Ericsson’s modernization of our charging system gives us the agility needed to meet the changing needs of our subscribers who expect greater control, personalization and flexibility,” said Nguyen Nam Long, General Manager, VNPT Network. “It also helps us prepare for the introduction of 4G and makes it easier to further develop our service offering.”

Although it seems like a simple upgrade, it does demonstrate to us that we shouldn’t be getting too carried away with the glorious promises of tomorrow. The new system will allow subscribers to request and update account information in real-time and automatically get notifications on costs, balances, and bonuses. This might seem like an old idea, but it just shows there are many operators around the world who do not fall into the early adopter category.

The emphasis on 4G should also not be underplayed. The majority of announcements which are taking place currently are focused on 5G, but 4G is still a massive market which should not be forgotten about. Almost every quarterly update includes figures on how many subscriptions have upgraded to 4G demonstrating that we aren’t quite as far ahead as we think we are.

5G is exciting to talk about, and a massive step forward towards the connected economy, but let’s not forget about its predecessor, we haven’t nailed that one just yet.

The China Telecom IoT Open Platform is founded on Ericsson’s Device Connection Platform, which in turn is now part of Ericsson IoT Accelerator initiative launched last year. Vendors and operators alike aspire to offer complete IoT products, featuring liberal use of terms like ‘end-to-end’ and ‘solution’. This seems to be a good example of that sort of thing.

The scope of this platform is global, with the announcement making liberal reference to China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ strategy, which refers to the economic belt defined by the traditional ‘Silk Road’ trade route between China and Europe. The fact that this is a collaboration between Chinese and European companies presumably contributed to that positioning.

“The IoT market is growing very rapidly and we aim to use our expertise in this area to help our customers capitalize on this opportunity,” said Magnus Rahm, Head of Global Service Operations at Ericsson. “Together with China Telecom, we can play a key role in realizing the tremendous potential of the IoT by reinventing processes, creating new services, and capturing new revenue.”

It’s possible this could be a bigger deal for Ericsson than it is for China Telecom, given the apparent focus on China from its rival, Nokia. The other two major networking vendors – Huawei and ZTE – are of course Chinese, but this won’t necessarily work to their advantage in securing business in the country.

The Chinese state knows that its continued growth as a global economic player relies on a perception that there is a level playing field for foreign companies. This One Belt initiative seems to be a political statement in favour of internationalism and it could be that Ericsson and Nokia see this as a golden opportunity to compete in the world’s largest telecoms market.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483176/ericsson-helps-china-telecom-with-its-iot-open-platform/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/11/IoT-abstract.jpgEricsson Chairman steps aside as company ‘enters a new phase’http://telecoms.com/483146/ericsson-chairman-steps-aside-as-company-enters-a-new-phase/
http://telecoms.com/483146/ericsson-chairman-steps-aside-as-company-enters-a-new-phase/#commentsWed, 05 Jul 2017 09:38:36 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483146Chairman of the Ericsson Board of Directors Leif Johansson has announced that he will not make himself available for re-election at the 2018 Annual General Meeting.

The move itself has come after several months of pressure from investors, including Cevian Capital, which has been particularly vocal in light of poor performance in recent years. Johansson has not explicitly fingered investor pressure as the reason for this departure, but the wording of the below statement leaves sufficient wiggle room for interpretation.

“I have had the privilege to serve as Chairman of the Board since 2011,” said Johansson. “It has been an exciting but also challenging time. Börje Ekholm assumed the position as CEO in the beginning of the year and during the first quarter the company presented a new, more focused, business strategy.

“This strategy, which is supported by the Board and the major owners, creates a solid foundation for realizing Ericsson’s full potential. The company now enters a new phase, with focus on execution, and we also have a new ownership constellation. It is natural to let the owners jointly propose a chairman and well ahead of this I want to announce that I will not be available for a next term.”

For the most part, it should come as little surprise. CEO Ekholm has been promising a restructure since his appointment, and this might just be another step towards the new and glowing Ericsson.

And when you look at the current management team, there is evidence this restructure might not just be a soundbite to ease the concerns of investors:

The guys in charge of the turning the Ericsson supertanker are pretty much all brand new to the Executive Management team. Perhaps Johansson is the final legacy cog in the machine to be removed, allowing the former market leader to walk the path to redemption. The signs are certainly positive, but we are still a little sceptical…

Yes, there is a fresh team in place perhaps signalling the restructure was more than a PR soundbite, and yes, there are rumours the team might be ditching the underperforming business units, but there is still a substantial legacy business weighing down the giant. The company has a lot of innovative products and plenty of smart people, but continued reliance on old-fashioned tech is still proving to be an issue.

While it is never nice to say that someone essentially resigning is a good thing, Johansson leaving the bridge might be a good thing for the Ericsson supertanker. Johansson has been in this position since 2011, an appointment which took place when Ericsson was performing adequately. Fortunes have changed but the approach hasn’t. Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result; if this is to be taken as a rule, it was just time for Johansson to move on.

It’s been turning on a very slow arc in recent months, but a fresh perspective and alternative leadership might just have the effect which the Swedes need.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483146/ericsson-chairman-steps-aside-as-company-enters-a-new-phase/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/07/Johansson.jpgEricsson and Qualcomm get excited about voice over LTE-Mhttp://telecoms.com/483120/ericsson-and-qualcomm-get-excited-about-voice-over-lte-m/
http://telecoms.com/483120/ericsson-and-qualcomm-get-excited-about-voice-over-lte-m/#commentsMon, 03 Jul 2017 15:27:18 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=483120The concept of machines wirelessly talking to each other is no longer just a metaphor as the first instances of voice being carried over an IoT technology are announced.

The LPWAN tech in question is LTE Cat-M1, otherwise known as LTE-M and eMTC, which until now had been treated as data-only. But just as with the main flavour of LTE, people figured it would be nice to have a voice option too.

Ericsson and Qualcomm seem to have been the main drivers behind this technology, partnering with Verizon and China Unicom to demo VoLTEM (is it will hence-forth be known in this publication) over live networks in the US and China respectively.

Verizon announced what it claimed was the first successful live over-the-air VoLTE call on a Cat-M1 network late last week. “Extending VoLTE technology on Verizon’s nationwide LTE Cat M1 network is the natural next step in the evolution of IoT,” said Rosemary McNally, VP for corporate technology at Verizon. “By proving that voice services can be delivered on a production LTE Cat M1 network, we’re paving the way for new types of IoT applications and services.”

Apart from the thrill of doing something for the first time it’s not immediately obvious why we would want to enable voice over a technology that is designed to enable machines to communicate with each other. At the Verizon launch Ericsson offered some clues.

“We are very pleased to have successfully demonstrated live VoLTE calls over Verizon’s commercial LTE Cat M1 network, together with Qualcomm Technologies,” said Eric Parsons, head of Product Line 4G and RAN Mobile Broadband at Ericsson. “The IoT space offers new revenue-generating services for operators and adding voice capabilities to IoT devices takes use cases such as alarm panels and medical alert systems to the next level of functionality.”

The China Unicom demo put more of an emphasis on use-cases, specifically the kinds of emergency communications systems alluded to above. For things like fire alarm trigger panels and GPS emergency tracking devices VoLTEM is thought to provide a good combination of coverage, long battery life and the ability for the striken person to communicate with the emergency services.

“We launched NB-IoT on a pre-commercial basis on May 12 in Shanghai,” said Guanglu Shao, Executive Director and Senior Vice President, China Unicom. “This cooperation on eMTC with Ericsson and Qualcomm is a new venture intended to boost social intelligence and the Internet of Everything through wide cooperation and the construction of leading networks.”

LTE-M is considered the most immediately usable of the emerging LPWAN it has greater throughput than NB-IoT (see Actility chart below), which allows things like voice, but modules are more expensive power-hungry, making it less useful for large scale embedded deployments.

As anyone who has ever been involved in the sponsorship game will be acutely aware, Platinum is the generally excepted precious metal used to denote the highest rung of pretty much anything. Yes, some marketing types get carried away and start going on about gems and the like, but for most sensible, rational people it doesn’t get better than platinum, after which it’s conventional to follow the Olympic medal system.

The OpenStack Foundation value its platinum tier so highly it caps membership at eight companies and doesn’t offer them lightly. Ericsson joins AT&T, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Rackspace, Red Hat and SUSE at the top table with even industry heavyweights such as China Mobile, DT, Cisco and ZTE forced to eat at the kiddie (gold) table.

“Ericsson has taken an active, advocacy role in collaborating with adjacent open source communities like the Open Network Automation Platform and the Open Platform for NFV,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation. “Their leadership stretches beyond the OpenStack community and embraces other technologies critical to the holistic approach for network transformation. They were a logical choice to lead at the highest level of our community.”

“OpenStack is the mainstream production technology for NFV and related technologies,” said Chris Price, open source strategist at Ericsson. “With 14 live OpenStack deployments and more than 80 customers running OpenStack globally, Ericsson is taking this bigger leadership commitment to the future of OpenStack, precisely because it’s proven, powerful and poised to continue leading the software-defined future of networking.”

The whole open source for telecoms thing is under a fair bit of scrutiny these days, with technologies that promised to revolutionise the industry such as NFV taking longer than hoped to start delivering.

The promotion of Ericsson to the top of the organisation is not only a positive statement of intent from Ericsson but renewed endorsement of the open source approach to the next generation of networking technology, which Heavy Reading recently found 86% of the industry think is important to their future success.

]]>http://telecoms.com/483057/openstack-makes-ericsson-its-8th-platinum-member/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/06/OpenStack_Logo_Vertical.jpgEricsson celebrates Vodafone UK pre-5G winhttp://telecoms.com/482913/ericsson-celebrates-vodafone-uk-pre-5g-win/
http://telecoms.com/482913/ericsson-celebrates-vodafone-uk-pre-5g-win/#commentsMon, 26 Jun 2017 09:45:25 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=482913Vodafone UK has chosen Ericsson to evolve its 4G networks in southern England and also provide technology to help it prepare for 5G in the region.

In these trying times for Ericsson any new business is cherished and one that features both a major operator group and the 5G buzzword is a bonus. Ericsson will be even more gratified considering Vodafone recently spoke at length about all the Massive MIMO goodness it was getting from Huawei, since the network evolution also involves that technology as well as carrier aggregation.

“We are working with Vodafone UK to evolve its 4G network and test new 5G technologies,” said Arun Bansal, Head of Europe and Latin America at Ericsson, who presumably spends much of his life flying between the two. “Together we will enable ubiquitous connectivity for their users that enable entirely new experiences, as well as monitoring and control of IoT in real time.”

At a recent Vodafone briefing there was talk of massive MIMO using 64 elements. Our understanding is that Ericsson isn’t offering quite this degree of massiveness to Vodafone just yet, so perhaps ‘Quite Big’ MIMO would be a more appropriate description. The 4G tweaks in the densely populated south of England will focus on speed and capacity.

The 5G part of the gig is apparently Ericsson’s first contract that includes collaboration on 5G. It’s a fairly broad array of pre-5G technology and a commitment to trials, product deployment, professional services and the kind of broad commitment to collaborate on 5G development, testing and use-cases that have characterized this generation of wireless technology.

The latter commitment, which featured the inevitable memorandum of understanding, includes the following:

When talk of the exit first emerged back in March, it was largely seen as a positive move for the business. In prior years, Ericsson had fought against dwindling profits through diversification, which largely proved to be unsuccessful. The new units, notably media and cloud hardware, underperformed and potentially distracted executives from nailing the core business, and addressing the mounting challenge from Huawei.

It’s a common cause for concern in businesses looking to diversify. Are you doing it to bolster the prospects of the business, or chasing lost profits? One is supported by an effective cash cow, offering freedom, the second is a needs must, mounting the pressure on new avenues. Should the first fail, it would be viewed as a ‘better luck next time’ scenario, if it’s the second, heads will roll. Generally there are few businesses which are successful at diversification as a result of market pressure, as opposed to being a proactive choice.

Now you shouldn’t get too excited just yet, as these are just rumours; turning the Ericsson super-tanker is going to take a while, but the recent sale of its small power modules business to Flex is a positive sign. It’s an indication of a potential refocus back onto the core business, but this is by no-means a guarantee.

So after a couple of months of posturing, redundant rhetoric, continuous restructuring and disappointing announcements, Ericsson might be doing something useful. Neat, huh?

]]>http://telecoms.com/482795/ericsson-moves-closer-to-flogging-media-unit/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/06/ericsson-hq-09-e1496233048132.jpgGlobal mobile network traffic grew 70% in the past year – Ericssonhttp://telecoms.com/482666/global-mobile-network-traffic-grew-70-in-the-past-year-ericsson/
http://telecoms.com/482666/global-mobile-network-traffic-grew-70-in-the-past-year-ericsson/#commentsTue, 13 Jun 2017 11:12:13 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=482666The latest Ericsson Mobility Report has registered growth in total mobile network traffic across the globe of 70% between the end of Q1 2016 and the end of Q1 2017.

Unsurprisingly this traffic growth is mainly driven by video streaming. Video accounted for around half of the 8.8 ExaBytes of mobile data traffic used last year but by 2022 that propotion will have increased to three quarters as total traffic will reach 71 ExaBytes. In clear second place among mobile data application categories is social networking.

Much of the other headline factoids from the report revolve around subscriber trends, with the number of global mobile internet subscribers apparently increasing by over a million per day. In addition the report forecasts that LTE will have become the dominant access technology next year, which will make it the mobile technology to achieve that feat most quickly.

“Based on measurements made in hundreds of mobile networks, the Ericsson Mobility Report data truly illustrates the tremendous underlying growth in the industry,” said Niklas Heuveldop, Chief Strategy Officer at Ericsson. “4G subscriptions are increasing faster than ever, Voice over LTE uptake is accelerating and traffic growth has reached levels we have not seen since 2013.

“I am particularly excited to see the industry’s major steps to progress network evolution, including the approval of the Non-Standalone 5G New Radio (NR) that will enable early 5G deployments. According to our forecast we anticipate that this will lead to more than half a billion 5G subscriptions and a population coverage 15 percent by 2022.”

Those claims are illustrated in the first chart below. By 2022 Ericsson forecasts there will be over five billion LTE subscriptions alone and half a billion 5G ones, having only been made available to end-users in 2020. The chart seems to anticipate even quicker uptake of 5G than 4G experienced, which sets the scene for it to become the dominant mobile technology by 2025 or so.

The vast majority of mobile subscription growth is coming from APAC, with India the primary driver thanks, in part at least, to the aggressive subscriber growth strategy adopted by Jio. The second chart illustrates this and reveals there is still plenty of growth coming from China, despite it having been growing rapidly for some time.

The final table shows total mobile subscriptions by region/country. Again China and India dominate, while other populous developing countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria are growing rapidly. Ericsson reckons there are a total of 5.2 billion mobile subscribers and 7.6 billion subscriptions globally.

]]>http://telecoms.com/482666/global-mobile-network-traffic-grew-70-in-the-past-year-ericsson/feed/0http://telecoms.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/06/Ericsson-june-2017-mobility-report.jpgEricsson celebrates Spanish win with big MásMóvil dealhttp://telecoms.com/482603/ericsson-celebrates-spanish-win-with-big-masmovil-deal/
http://telecoms.com/482603/ericsson-celebrates-spanish-win-with-big-masmovil-deal/#commentsThu, 08 Jun 2017 09:57:44 +0000http://telecoms.com/?p=482603Ericsson announced some positive news for once with the signing of a strategic agreement with MásMóvil to provide a bunch of network evolution and support services.

MásMóvil might only be the fourth Spanish MNO, with four million or so subscribers, but it’s ambitious and a deal is a deal. Ericsson will be providing NFV-based core network evolution, billing, managed services and even some FTTH action to MásMóvil, so while the size of the deal might not be earth-shattering it will certainly provide a good platform for Ericsson to show what it can do.

“In addition to introducing a range of new services for home customers, this agreement makes it possible for MásMóvil to provide innovative and flexible service bundles and billing to enterprises,” said José Antonio López, Head of Ericsson Spain (pictured above, right). “The support services and managed services portions of the contract will ensure that services are delivered with the utmost quality, according to agreed key performance indicators.”

“The strategic agreement with Ericsson is a clear demonstration of our investment character to continue improving and updating our fixed and mobile networks with the unique objective of offering our customers the best telecommunications products and services,” said Meinrad Spenger, CEO of MásMóvil (left).

Until a year ago MásMóvil was a relatively unheralded MVNO on the Orange Spain network, then embarked upon an acquisition spree, including the smallest Spanish MNO Yoigo. It is clearly in aggressive expansion mode and also has a nascent fixed line business, so Ericsson should be able to use this strategic agreement as a case study so long as everything goes according to plan.